Spiritual Life and the Word of God

by Emanuel Swedenborg

That the Word is such is not evident to man while he is in the world; but it is evident to him when he becomes an angel. Because the Word is such in outmosts it follows that it is not the Word until it is in that outmost, that is, until it is in the sense of the letter. The Word not in that outmost would be like a temple in the air and not on the earth, or like a man having flesh but without bones.

As Divine truth is in its fullness and also in its power in its outmost, for when it is in that it is in all things at once, so the Lord never works except from first things through outmosts, and thus in fullness. For He reforms and regenerates man only through truths in outmosts, which are natural. And this is why a man remains after his departure out of the world to eternity such as he has been in the world. For the same reason heaven and hell are from the human race, and angels are not created immediately such; for in the world a man is in his fullness, consequently he can there be conceived and born, and afterward be imbued with knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and become an angel. To create angels in any other way is impossible.

Because the Lord works all things from things first through outmosts, and is in His power and in His fullness in outmosts, so it pleased the Lord to take upon Him the Human and to become Divine truth, that is, the Word, and thus from Himself to reduce to order all things of heaven and all things of hell, that is, to execute a last judgment. This the Lord could accomplish from the Divine in Himself, which was in things first, through His Human which was in outmosts, and not, as before, from His presence or abode in the men of the church; for these had wholly forsaken the truths and goods of the Word, in which the Lord had previously had His dwelling-place with men. This was the chief reason for the Lord's coming into the world, also for making His Human Divine; for He thus put Himself into possession of a power to hold all things of heaven and all things of hell in order for ever. This is meant by

"Sitting at the right hand of God" (Mark xvi. 19).

"The right hand of God" means Divine omnipotence, and "to sit at the right hand of God" means to be in that omnipotence through the Human. That the Lord ascended into heaven with His Human glorified even to outmosts He testifies in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold Me having" (xxiv. 39).

This the Lord said just after His resurrection. "Flesh and bones" are the outmosts of the human body, on which its strength depends. (A.E., n. 1087.)

Divine truth is what is called holy, but only when it is in its outmost, and its outmost is the Word in the sense of the letter; therefore the Divine truth there is holy, and may be called a holy place, and for the reason that that sense contains and encloses all the holy things of heaven and the church. The appearance is that Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are more holy than the Divine truths in the sense of the letter of the Word, which are natural; but the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are comparatively like the lungs and heart in man, which form the chest only when they are encompassed by ribs, and enclosed in the pleura and diaphragm; for without these integuments, and even unless connected with them by bonds, they could not perform their vital functions. The spiritual things of the Word are like the breathing of the lungs, its celestial things are like the systole and diastole of the heart, and its natural things are like the pleura, the diaphragm, and the ribs, with the moving fibers attached, by which the motions are made reciprocal.

Again, the spiritual and celestial things of the Word are comparatively like the holy things of the tabernacle, which consisted of the table upon which was the shew bread, the golden altar upon which was the incense, the perfumes and the censor, also the lampstand with the lamps, and still further within, the cherubim, the mercy seat, and the ark. All these were the holy things of the Jewish and Israelitish church; nevertheless they could not be called holy and a sanctuary until they had been covered by curtains and veils, for without those coverings they would have stood under the naked sky, exposed to showers and storms, to the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and also to robbers that would violate, plunder, and scatter them. So would it be with the Divine truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, unless they were enclosed in natural truths, like the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word.

Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, are not the very truths of heaven, but are appearances of them; and appearances of truth encompass, enclose and contain the truths of heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and order and to act together, like the cardiac and pulmonary organs with their coverings and ribs, as has been said above; and when these truths are held in connection and in order they are holy, and not till then. This the sense of the letter of our Word does by means of the appearances of truth of which its outmost consists; and this is why that sense is the holy Divine itself and a sanctuary.